THE RED AND BLACK

Video from Heartsongs presentation, February 13, 2014.
See Acknowledgments for details.

late March, northern Wisconsin

Along Highway 51, where the Bad River
wanders out of earshot, snow pelts my windshield
like huge white diatoms. I make out a road sign
which says BEAR HABITAT. Farther into this sea
of pummeling I sense I must get to the bottom.
Then I hear them calling: “Slow, slow…
turn off into the birches—park your van and leave it…”
I pull my hands up into my sleeves and listen—
“The snow will cover your tracks to our dens—
they cannot follow you. And when it stops you
will have to walk backwards the way you came here.
But how long a song it will be until tomorrow
and what your footprints will resemble is another
story altogether. We are waiting, brother.”